Latest from Jay Donovan

PicoBrew is a beer-centered startup in Seattle, founded by brothers Bill and Jim Mitchell and Avi Geiger.
The machine at the heart of their operation is The Zymatic—an apparatus that simplifies beer-making by reducing the need to monitor the cooking process of creating Wort (unfermented beer).
Did their device turn a beer drinker like me, with zero brewing experience, into a beer maker? Read More

Crit (as in Critique) is a new iPhone and iPad app by Morpholio that allows designers, architects, photographers and other creative types to upload and markup images as a form of real-time communication. Read More

Flyp is a new iOS/Android app that lets you have up to six different phone numbers simultaneously active on your smartphone. The first number is free and each additional “premium” phone number (a maximum of five) costs $2.99 per month (or $29.99 per year) to maintain. The Flyp app manages all the numbers, voicemail, text messages, and notifications. The app is live in the iOS store… Read More

Operating out of Room #4 at the Bates Motel at SXSW 2015 (this is another story), I got the opportunity to interview a few fascinating startups that traveled from Tokyo to Austin, TX over the weekend to show their hardware-based concepts. During a rapid-fire demo session, I was able to see eight different startups and four really struck me as doing some novel work. Read More

We first reported on Metaio’s Thermal Touch concept for Augmented Reality (AR) interface control last spring. Still in its infancy, the concept relies on thermal imaging cameras to track residual heat your body leaves on surfaces that it touches and uses those heat signatures to control AR interfaces.
The next concept version demoing this week at the Mobile World Congress is now… Read More

Even as we hear about Snapchat expanding the ways content can be shared on their network, there are still certain content types that are missing from the messaging app and also from other platforms like Instagram.
CEO Rhai Goburdhun and his team of cofounders noticed this gap and created SOUNDS to let you share 15-second snippets of music to both Instagram and, as of last week, Snapchat. Read More

A cursory search under “headphone management” will bring up virtually hundreds of products. Spoolee’s novel contribution to the category is a twig adrift in an ocean of competition. This seems like a small and unusual product for us to cover but there are three things that make this product stand out and that are worth mentioning: Read More

Enterprise Wi-Fi provider Aruba Networks officially lights up their homegrown beacon network and accompanying smartphone app at Levi’s Stadium today. After having been in “beta” mode for that last several months, the deployment now enables a host of location-based services for stadium goers like: quickly and accurately finding concessions, restrooms, and seats with the… Read More

We first showed you Metaio’s Creator platform for easy integration of Augmented Reality into magazines, way back in 2011. The software, makes it easy for print designers to select imagery in their layouts and turn those images into AR markers to launch digital content when you view the final magazine page through special software or eyewear. It’s an interesting way to extend the… Read More

Metaio and Timetraveler Augmented announced the Timetraveler application today. Using Augmented Reality (AR), smartphone and tablet owners can view historical content about the Berlin Wall, in and near the locations where it used to stand. Content includes historical film footage, reconstructions of demolished sites, and stories about the divisive impact the wall had on Germany during… Read More

Meta — which recently presented at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2014 — today began to ship the final version of its Meta 1 Developer Kit (which includes the AR glasses). The 1,500 members of the company’s Pioneer Developer Program will be the lucky (and patient) recipients of the glasses and the accompanying SDK. I say patient, because this shipment is the culmination of… Read More

I’ve seen attempts before to make online shopping “social.” There have been Chrome plugins, Firefox plugins, browser overlays…I’m not sure it ever worked out.
A startup called Zurf that presented from the floor at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2014 thinks differently though. I find their concept somewhat interesting and it solves a few problems. Read More

YouTurn is probably wincing that I compare their app to the extremely popular Hyperlapse. In my defense, there are similarities that simply must be noted — primarily that the app creates super-fast videos of events.
However, YouTurn, who is showing their concept on the floor at TechCrunch Disrupt, has a slightly different angle and it revolves around taking road trips in your car and… Read More

Kanzee is a social network and accompanying app that allows people to share and swap clothes with each other. It’s a simple concept and that’s why I like it. It also solves a problem that many a fashionista have encountered (myself not included) — how to get new outfits or accoutrements for specific events without purchasing them. Read More

With less than two weeks before the FCC closes comments on proceeding #14-28, also known as the landmark Net Neutrality issue, viral video firm Thinkmodo is releasing a new video in one last attempt to get the word out and get those comments forms filling again. Read More

Announced as far back as January, the efforts of founder Alex Bandar, COO Casey McCarty and Shop/Production Manger Matt Hatcher have finally come to fruition; the Columbus Idea Foundry — a 65,000 square ft. “makerspace” in the heart of Columbus, Ohio — is open in its brand new location. Read More

The eye tracking experts at Tobii announced the Tobii Glasses 2, their latest combined glasses and software system built for advanced eye tracking analysis. Built “to obtain real-world gaze data in real time” in many different situations and locations, the Tobii Glasses are lightweight (45 grams) and unobtrusive but can capture user gaze data in HD at 1080p. The complete… Read More

One of the big promises of a smart-glasses approach to wearable tech was always augmented reality. Context-specific augmented reality was the most interesting though — meaning that the AR content was actually overlaid on the object you were looking at directly and not up in the corner of your eye so you had to look away like in Google Glass. That was the direction I thought it was… Read More